OTTAWA — A Quebec member of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet has added his voice to those questioning the federal government’s decision to appoint a unilingual candidate as auditor general.

Maxime Bernier, the minister of state for small business and tourism, missed a vote last week in the House of Commons on the controversial nomination, blaming a delayed flight following an event in his eastern Quebec constituency.

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Michael Ferguson, a former auditor general from New Brunswick, was appointed last week by the government to a 10-year term in the federal position. It makes him the public watchdog of spending in Canadian government departments, agencies and Crown corporations.

The chartered accountant has pledged to improve his level of French within one year, while acknowledging that he needed about 1,200 hours of instruction to get up to an advanced level of bilingualism.

But Bernier’s office confirmed that the Quebec minister was not pleased about the selection process that led to Ferguson’s appointment.

“While Minister Bernier would have preferred that the candidate chosen for the position of auditor general was already bilingual, the minister has complete confidence that Mr. Ferguson will respect his engagement to learn French this year,” said Bernier’s spokesman, Scott French, in a statement sent to Postmedia News.

Bernier is the second member of the Conservative caucus to go public about concerns regarding the appointment following Leo Housakos, a businessman and Conservative organizer from Montreal who was appointed by Harper to the Senate in December 2008.

Housakos has said the appointment sets a dangerous precedent that threatens bilingualism in Canada.

“There are certain positions in the federal government that are so symbolic to what Canada is all about and I just believe they have to be filled by people who are functionally bilingual,” Housakos said on Monday.

“I would equally find it unacceptable if we would name an auditor general who is unilingually francophone, and I think English Canadians who might find this issue blown out of proportion perhaps might be a little bit more sensitive to it if they had, for example, named a unilingual francophone auditor general.”

The official job description of the auditor general calls for a candidate who is fluently bilingual in both of Canada’s official languages.

But Housakos did not point the finger at Harper, suggesting that the appointment was probably due to an oversight by the selection committee that was never discovered or corrected until it was too late.

“I know the prime minister is committed to bilingualism (and) I know the prime minister is committed to nation building,” said Housakos. “If for one minute, I thought there was malice on the part of the prime minister or cabinet, I would be even more vocal than I am now.”

Ferguson was given a rough ride during an appearance at a parliamentary committee last week from opposition MPs who directly challenged and tested his level of French.

The federal Liberals, who boycotted a vote in Parliament about the nomination, have also suggested that they might challenge the appointment in court.

Canada’s official languages legislation requires the federal government to protect the rights of minority English and French-speaking communities and provide a boost for bilingualism across the country.

Ferguson is replacing John Wiersema, who was interim auditor general following the end of the term of former auditor Sheila Fraser who finished her 10-year term on May 30.